The business world is full of challenges. In order to surpass them, a company needs to have certain measures and strategies in place that will help mitigate and prevent any harm to come to the business. Accordingly, one of those should regard business’ reputation.
Every business depends on its reputation in order to survive and it depends on the trust of its consumers. In order to build and protect your business’ reputation, you need to focus your efforts on establishing a positive relationship with your customers. So, if you want to improve your business, here is advice on how to work on its reputation.
1. Be proactive in protecting your business’ reputation
The common mistake a business can make is to work on damage control only after a crisis happens. Today, when everything is exposed to the Internet, it is imperative to take steps to protect your business’ reputation right from the start. Being proactive on this matter will help you spot the possible issues right from the start and deal with them accordingly.
One of the important aspects is managing the public announcements like press releases to the media, statements, and posts on social media. Also, perform a risk assessment for every key decision you make in order to anticipate potential negative outcomes. Moreover, train your employees to recognize, manage and respond to potentially threatening situations and especially those who are publicly exposed.
2. Put an extra effort for your clients
The way you interact with your clients will be directly reflected in your reputation. Basically, your clients will spread the word about their experience and that can be a powerful tool to build or ruin one’s reputation. In order to create a positive experience for them, you will need to personalize their experience with your company.
The customer experience is more and more important in the business world especially when you try to position your brand on the market. Creating a personalized shopping experience will not only get you more profit but also help you create a loyal following. But this is not something new since it has always been a practice to treat the customers like royalty and thus improve business’ reputation.
However, this practice is something that depends on consistency. Namely, if you started off with personalized service then you need to maintain that course. Follow the newest trends in customer service to be on top of your game and even expand the customer base.
3. Make sure you offer the top quality content
Once you publish your content, it is public and therefore open for criticism. However, while everyone will have their opinion, there are other things you can do to damage your business’ reputation. Namely, typos, wrong facts, misspellings, and incorrect numbers.
To remedy this right from the start, you will have to proofread the material or simply hire a proofreader. Today, it’s very easy to spread the word of someone content mistake with reposting and snapshotting the case on social media. And sometimes, it’s not so easy to correct yourself before your peers, especially if the conversation is far gone or you didn’t see it in time.
4. Build a great relationship with your partners
The way you conduct business with others will also have a great impact on your reputation, as well as how they act towards you. To prevent misleading and deceptive conduct, it’s important to have agreements in place that will define the obligations of both parties. If you build a great relationship with your partners, they will show public satisfaction and thus create a positive image for you.
Also, they will recommend you to their customers and so help you boost your revenue. And since businesses also depend on partnerships with other companies, this will be an important factor for success. Additionally, agreements define the risk management measures in case of improper behavior by your partner company in order to protect your reputation.
5. Encourage customers to leave reviews
If there is one thing that your customers like to do, it’s to read reviews from other consumers. Even more so, they pay attention to rating your business got in those reviews as well as the experience. Based on statistics, 86% of consumers read reviews and most of them are aged 18-34 and will go to business with 4 to 5 stars.
One of the ways to build and protect your business’ reputation is to ask your customers to leave a review. This will show that you care what your consumers think and give you legitimacy on the market and for your brand. Also, give an incentive in the form of discounts to customers in order to encourage them to leave reviews and promote your business.
6. Always answer comments and complaints
Negative comments and complaints are something that you can’t avoid. After all, you can’t make everyone happy no matter how hard you try and invest in your brand. However, the key here is how you react to those negative comments and complaints which will either boost or hurt your reputation.
Just by failing to publicly respond in these situations can have a negative outcome for your business since consumers read reviews and rely on them for a brand recommendation. When you deal with these comments and complaints, be humble and try to resolve the issue with a refund or discount. Even in the case, the reviewer is wrong, you still need to keep a calm and respectable tone.
To keep the comments, reviews, and complaints in check you will have to closely monitor your social media accounts and your website. Also, use apps and Google to find your mentions on other locations that you don’t usually scout. A timely response to whether the positive or negative comment will earn you public respect and help you expand consumer base.
Conclusion
The best way to build and protect your business’ reputation is by communicating with your clients and having a good risk management plan in place. Although some situations are impossible to foresee, you will still be ready to tackle the problems if you expect there will be ones.
Bio: David Koller is a passionate blogger and copywriter for Media Gurus, mainly interested in SEO, Business and Digital Marketing.